The goal of journalism is to try to find the most interesting story possible. When it comes to Nintendo, I’m going to assume that the negative stories will grab the most traffic. I won’t pretend like Nintendo doesn’t make mistakes, and I’m glad websites will call them out on their mistakes.

But here’s the issue. You don’t promise an indie developer to do an interview about their game, and then turn the interview into: “Tell us what pisses you off about Nintendo’s indie policies” for most of the interview. And when the developer doesn’t tell you anything negative about Nintendo, you choose not to publish the interview.

A very big (very well known) gaming site invited an indie studio called ACKKStudios to do an interview about their game “Two Brothers” for the Wii U’s eShop. ACKKStudios thought, “This is awesome! We’ll get tons of exposure about our game from this site!” They were really excited about this interview because they could talk about their game to a big audience since most of their interviews have been with much smaller, lesser known sites.

Remember that indies rely on the gaming media and social networking (Twitter, facebook) to get the word out about their games. They don’t have giant budgets of advertising dollars to promote their stuff.

So they do the interview over the phone. This was a week or so after Hurricane Sandy had hit New Jersey (where ACKKStudios is located). Brian Allanson from ACKKStudios is expecting most of the questions to be about their game, but the interviewer isn’t interested in that. The interviewer keeps throwing leading questions to get them to bash Nintendo’s indie policies. ACKKStudios keeps trying to dodge these leading questions left and right. In the past, ACKKStudios has gone on record saying that their experience working with the eShop team was really smooth so far: http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2012...hop-next-year/

Because ACKKStudios has to keep dodging these questions about “why Nintendo sucks with indies”, the interview starts getting super awkward, weird, and boring.

Three weeks later, and the interview hasn’t gone up on the site. This is because ACKKStudios didn’t give them any ammo to create a negative story or a controversial headline a few weeks before Wii U’s launch. For this particular site, talking about the game ”Two Brothers” is not going to bring them any hits. It is not click bait. Big sites think it’s easier to get negative or controversial information about Nintendo out of indies than bigger developers and publishers. They promise to interview an eShop developer about their game, but the reality is they are coming to these eShop developers for a completely different, more controversial story.

Indies like ACKKStudios can’t publically criticize sites in the gaming media because indies don’t want to be blacklisted from a website as big as this one. This is part of why I can’t mention the site by name. The issue here is indies NEED the gaming media to spread the message about their game, but some big sites think they can walk all over an indie because of this. Gaming media knows that indies need the media, but the media doesn’t need indies.

For the big site I am referring to, it has quite a negative reputation from Nintendo fans. Some gamers have made past claims that this site has an agenda against Nintendo, and I never believed it. I just assumed that Nintendo fans were being way too sensitive and defensive about any criticism against Nintendo. But now I’m starting to think there might be some kind of an agenda from this site. For the record, I’m NOT talking about IGN, GameSpot, Eurogamer, or Destructoid. The site I’m speaking of is just as well known as those sites though.

It’s true that sites have no obligations to post an interview.

But when you bait indie developers into thinking you’re interested in their game when your real agenda is tearing down Nintendo with a controversial story…your site starts looking like ”The Sun” of gaming journalism. The irony is that the top guy behind this site has been regularly defending gaming journalism when his site has been the biggest contributor in manufacturing click-bait controversy.

I’m friends with many eShop developers, and many indies in general. I talk to them via twitter/emails every day. They always tell me about the behind the scenes stuff and the politics of the gaming industry. I try to make an effort to help talented indies with promoting their games. Big gaming sites should know that eShop developers talk to Nintendo on a regular basis. Some of these eShop developers are friends with Nintendo of America employees. Keep that in mind before you push an agenda, or you’ll end up burning a lot of bridges.

She then took it down..

Then Emily took down the article.Then Twittered her heart out while the rest of the internet watched in amused befuddlement as she tried to explain who was talking to whom about what.

Quote:I have removed the article to prevent any politics for the studio.Quote:I should have not written that article without talking to the interviewer and Ackkstudios.Quote:While I speak to AckkStudios regularly, there was no reason to turn anything into a public article.Quote:For the record, the article I wrote had nothing to do with kotaku. It was a different site. I noticed gaf people sending me a link to gaf.Quote:AckkStudios did an interview with Kotaku but that wasnt the site I spoke of in the article.

Sure it is bad journalism.. but what do YOU think? This was Kotaku's response to Emily's claim.

Wow! It's not every day you get anonymously accused of this sort of thing. This is about me and Kotaku, yes.

I'm disappointed that the developers of that game chose to bash me to another reporter instead of asking me why my story hasn't gone up. If they had asked me, I would have happily told them that the story was pushed back because I didn't want it to get lost among the influx of Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Wii U, holiday gift guides, and all the other big stories we've been covering over the past few weeks. I would have told them that their story is not particularly timely, so I wanted to hold it for a time when they could get more attention.

I would have also happily told them how excited I am about the Wii U and how psyched I am to hear that indie developers are doing well on it. I said as much in a podcast recorded yesterday, coincidentally (which you can check out Wednesday over at GameTrailers TV).

Anyone who follows me on Twitter, reads my work on Kotaku, or saw my thoughts on BBC last week knows that I am very high on this system.

I'm also disappointed that the author of this article didn't reach out to get my side of this story. Reporters should not treat other reporters this way.

It's always weird when stuff like this goes public. I still intend to run this story, but now I guess there's more to the story than what I was originally going to run.

Instead of updating the article, she completely removed it just like her 30 false twitter accounts.

Emily Rogers is a popular hit-and-miss rumor hitter. She wrote an interesting article, or at least it seemed to be. Is journalism against Nintendo? Is Kotaku making up bad excuses to cover up? Or is Emily Rogers just a bad writer?

Oh, Emily Rogers. I have nothing against you personally, but you're making it hard to take you seriously when you do something as unprofessional as this. The way you always run from a mistake is by deleting everything associated with said mistake.

I get it, I'm a human being. I also make mistakes, but I believe it would be for the better that, instead of constantly running from and trying to hide her mistakes, that she should try to confront and learn from them. Until then, I don't think I'll be able take her seriously.

I'm glad this happened to her. Sure, that sounds some what hateful, but she bit off more than she could chew. She tried to act like a big dog, when she really doesn't have what it takes to be a "journalist", she was way in over her head.

That's not to say she could never have one day been a "big dog" or a real journalist but she went the wrong way about it entirely.

Now, if she takes this time off to actually learn a thing or two about proper journalism and she comes back and writes with integrity and entirely focuses on writing decent articles (in which she's already proven is possible) and not being a lying rumor monger to get twitter followers and notoriety. (Funny that she accuses Kotaku of being click baiters, which is entirely true but still, she's just as bad just in other aspects).

So again, when i say she deserves this, I'm not trying to be mean I think she can learn a lot from this.

Her damage control on this entire situation was horrible though and seeing as how this isn't the first time she's abandoned her twitter I really don't see her learning any lessons, but please, prove me wrong Emily.

cortjezter wrote:wait... who is emily rogers? and why is this even important?

tons of amateur and pro game writers get things wrong every day.

I'll try to put this in a way as not to discredit anyone or anything. Because I don't really care, and I tend to take any rumors with a grain of salt no matter what the source. Emily Rogers puts out quite a few rumors. Some tout her as being very spot on with rumors. While many others think that she is more often wrong than not, and when she is right it's pretty obvious things that anyone could have come up with. When her rumors get posted on GoNintendo it often leads to an argument between Emily Rogers and a bunch of other people in the comments.

It's hard telling whether the article is something that did come from one of the developers directly or not. I do think it's rather unfortunate that she mentioned the developer by name, possibly causing bad blood between them and the site, when that is something they count on to get word out about their games.

Gaming journalist do some shady things. They purposely troll to get people all rilled up>more views> bigger payout. Even been on imore.com? Half the time the Renee on there bashes anything non Apple. He'll say "yeah, Steve Jobs is right...a 7'' tablet is terrible because I used some cheap $100 android tablet!". But then all of a sudden the iPad mini comes out and he's all like "Wow, this is the perfect size EVA1@!!!!".

People usully bash Nintendo because they know it will rile feathers. Dan Hsu did this a LOT in EGM while he was there.

Again, Nintendo has weathered a lot, and since they are not 'core' someone has something to complain about.

cortjezter wrote:wait... who is emily rogers? and why is this even important?

tons of amateur and pro game writers get things wrong every day.

Have you been keeping up with the news GoNintendo posts?

Emily Rogers is posted up on the site quite frequently. She usually posts rumors that can be right on the spot or flat out false. She got a lot of flame when she spread a rumor about Retro falling apart and having internal struggle. She based it off some people leaving and Retro hiring more people. Typical things for a gaming business ended up being a big scare on this site. Even though other people including Retro itself said she was BS the entire rumor, people still ate it up.

One thing to note is she said the Youtube app for Wii was coming out 2 months ago. The Wii app came out, but it came out a month after it was told to come out.

TL;DR - Emily Rogers is a journalist who spouts rumors that end up on this site quite frequently. People have argued her credibility and have said she is a bad journalist who lies. She came up with a hit article that ended up being a huge mistake.

To people wondering why the links don't work - she deleted all her articles as damage control.

What amazes me is that most of you still fall for her formulaic sensationalism of completely fabricated, made up BS. Just like her untrue, unresearched, and completely false report on Retro Studios. What a bunch of horse dookey.

Emily Rogers lies. She reports it as truth to get attention and she hurts developers, as in this recent case with Ackkstudios.

She's malicious, she has no integrity, and she lies....and most of you fall for it time and time again.

Trevelyan8 wrote:What amazes me is that most of you still fall for her formulaic sensationalism of completely fabricated, made up BS. Just like her untrue, unresearched, and completely false report on Retro Studios. What a bunch of horse dookey.

Emily Rogers lies. She reports it as truth to get attention and she hurts developers, as in this recent case with Ackkstudios.

She's malicious, she has no integrity, and she lies....and most of you fall for it time and time again.

She's a hack...just like Paul Gale.

Come on Emily...Let's dance.

you went out of your way and made a login (complete with avatar image!) just to post that? wow.... bitter much?

cortjezter wrote:wait... who is emily rogers? and why is this even important?

tons of amateur and pro game writers get things wrong every day.

Have you been keeping up with the news GoNintendo posts?

...

TL;DR - Emily Rogers is a journalist who spouts rumors that end up on this site quite frequently. People have argued her credibility and have said she is a bad journalist who lies. She came up with a hit article that ended up being a huge mistake.

admittedly, i dont read everything on the blog, but ive heard her name before, and after a few searches to quell my curiosity about this person who kind of came out of nowhere and causes so much fuss; but i came up with a lot of nothing. honestly, i thought she might have been some former g4 or youtube 'personality' (read: pretty face) now doing her own thing.

i don't know to what extent that may be true or not, but i still don't understand why someone with that track record and very little history is being given so much attention... which brings me back to my original point: why are her stories/rumors news in the first place? sounds like they should be given as much weight as what any average gamer on the 'net would post.

and just like you shouldn't believe everything you see on tv, rmc posts a lot of stuff i wouldn't consider news-worthy or even interesting; just because it appears on gonintendo's blog doesn't make it real news or even worth paying attention to.

cortjezter wrote:wait... who is emily rogers? and why is this even important?

tons of amateur and pro game writers get things wrong every day.

Have you been keeping up with the news GoNintendo posts?

...

TL;DR - Emily Rogers is a journalist who spouts rumors that end up on this site quite frequently. People have argued her credibility and have said she is a bad journalist who lies. She came up with a hit article that ended up being a huge mistake.

admittedly, i dont read everything on the blog, but ive heard her name before, and after a few searches to quell my curiosity about this person who kind of came out of nowhere and causes so much fuss; but i came up with a lot of nothing. honestly, i thought she might have been some former g4 or youtube 'personality' (read: pretty face) now doing her own thing.

i don't know to what extent that may be true or not, but i still don't understand why someone with that track record and very little history is being given so much attention... which brings me back to my original point: why are her stories/rumors news in the first place? sounds like they should be given as much weight as what any average gamer on the 'net would post.

and just like you shouldn't believe everything you see on tv, rmc posts a lot of stuff i wouldn't consider news-worthy or even interesting; just because it appears on gonintendo's blog doesn't make it real news or even worth paying attention to.

It's hard to find anything on her because she constantly deletes her posts that end up wrong. She mainly posts rumors and "inside source" stuff around e3 time. The first thing I can remember from her is before the initial Wii U reveal she posted a lot of fake Wii U screenshots (that supposedly came from an inside source) and has continued to do very similar stories. I think the only reason why people care about who she is is because she keeps appearing on the site, and when she does RMC posts it up and says something along the lines of "This is coming from Emily Rogers. Who, in the past has been right multiple times" (And in all fairness, she has, but on things that anyone could have guessed...like "There will be a new Mario game") Which spawns people arguing in the comments whether or not she is a credible source.

You are right though, she isn't a big deal, and this kind of thing happens all the time. I have nothing against her, personally, and I don't know why everyone constantly hates on her in the comments. I receive her rumors like any other rumors I see, with a grain of salt. It is kind of sad to constantly see her fall flat on her face though (and my opinion on that is in my initial post, so I won't restate what I said earlier)

I don't think the rumours she posts are given more attention because of who wrote about them, but simply because they're often outlandish rumours that bring in a lot of site traffic.

I mean, remember the Majora's Mask 3D fiasco where a faked GAME website page posted on a forum caused about twenty gaming news sites to think such a game was in development? Or the Smash Bros Universe stuff? The old Zelda Valley of the Flood rumours? Seriously, I think anyone could post the same thing and get it sent to the GoNintendo front page.

And people wonder why I have always questioned her "legit" status as a "gaming journalist".

But hey, no, this was just (another) big misunderstanding, yes? Riiiiiiiiiiiight.

@cortjezter

People on GN know her mainly because RMC himself has posted her "articles" before, and she has, for whatever reason, been given a sense of "validity" and "credence" by RMC many times. I suppose something about a gamer chick being "cute", can often blind young gamer men to the true nature of things.......

Also featured at: http://thepunkeffect.comFollow along on Twitter: @RetroRevelationAnd Tumblr: retrorevelations.tumblr.com

Sounds to me like a personal conversation ended up as the article that should never have been. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if this was true (come on guys, there ARE several sites out there that just hate on Ninty for all the wrong reasons), a journalist trying to pick away at non-existent scabs just like everyone else who interviewed a developer at the early stages of Wii U and screamed 'weak CPU' to the hills (without REALLY knowing what Wii U's guts can do).

She may not be right all of the time, but I can't help but believe and apreciate this one.

Bowser-Is-My-Father on IGN & Nintendo EnthusiastNintendo Original since 1984Loving the Wii U, IGNoring the haters

BowsersLoveChild wrote:Sounds to me like a personal conversation ended up as the article that should never have been. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if this was true (come on guys, there ARE several sites out there that just hate on Ninty for all the wrong reasons), a journalist trying to pick away at non-existent scabs just like everyone else who interviewed a developer at the early stages of Wii U and screamed 'weak CPU' to the hills (without REALLY knowing what Wii U's guts can do).

She may not be right all of the time, but I can't help but believe and apreciate this one.

It isn't that she isn't right all the time. It's that, at least as far as I've been concerned all along, she lacks any real credibility, and this wouldn't be the first time that she has flat out just made s*** up.

Also featured at: http://thepunkeffect.comFollow along on Twitter: @RetroRevelationAnd Tumblr: retrorevelations.tumblr.com

Wow, there's a lot of unfair shovel being said about me in this thread.

First of all, RawMeatCowboy and KingBroly see a lot of stuff that GoNintendo users will NEVER see. I want to make that clear. I'll always be open with those two on anything. I show them stuff the rest of this site will never see. This is why they view me as credible. I talk to RMC and KingBroly regularly on Twitter, and they know a lot of things about me that many of you don't know.

Secondly, if Cortjezter or the rest of the GoNintendo staff wants to know more about me, then please private message me and we'll get in touch over emails. I'll show you things I've only shown RMC and KingBroly. Don't just make assumptions about me and pretend like you know who I am.

Just because you see my name pop up on articles doesn't give you the right to throw stones at me for an entire thread. I don't think Dual Pixels or ZeldaInformer get attacked for getting things wrong as much as you rip me apart. Maybe it is because it's easier to attack a person than a website? I remember when you guys ripped me apart for the YouTube Wii thing, and that turned out true a few weeks later.

Last I checked, GoNintendo has a PM system and people can ask me any questions they want. I am also regularly in the IRC chat to answer questions. Instead of being a keyboard warrior, I would suggest doing the non-cowardly thing and contacting me if I really, really bother you that much.

ROFL! I think this thread should closed and locked. I can see where you guys are coming from and where Emily is coming from. Some of you are being pretty harsh to her but yet a lot of you guy's points or valid as well. But this is nothing more than a glorified user-flaming thread. That's like someone making a whole thread about a gonintendo user/reader talking about how their opinions are invalid and don't matter. If I was a mod I would've locked this thread AND banned the OP. This thread is just mean and uncalled for and i'm contacting a mod right now to request it to be locked/closed.